We try to keep this list of historic house museums for New York current, but it is best to check directly with the museums for their hours and other information. If you know of a historic house museum in New York that should be listed here, please use our submission form to let us know about it.

Albany

Year Built: 1787Admission Price: See their websiteHours: See their website

Historic Cherry Hill tells a story of America through the lives and experiences of five generations of an Albany, New York family. One of Albany's most recognizable landmarks, Cherry Hill, built in 1787 for Philip and Maria Van Rensselaer, is rare among this country's house museums. Its extensive and intact collection is unique. It includes more than 70,000 items-decorative arts and furnishings, books, diaries, documents, clothing and household textiles, and other objects reflecting daily life-all related to the family that lived in the home between 1787 and 1963.

The Georgian structure, reflecting Schuyler's English tastes - was built on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River. Originally situated on an 80-acre tract of land, the grounds once included an orchard, a formal garden, and a working farm. Throughout the Schuyler family occupancy from 1763-1804, the mansion was the site of military strategizing, political hobnobbing, elegant social affairs, and an active family life. - See more at: http://nysparks.com/historic-sites/33/details.aspx#sthash.LkaZLGTx.dpuf

The Cobblestone Museum is an open-air museum that promotes the study and exploration of cobblestone construction methods from 1825 to 1860, offering visitors the opportunity to explore three period cobblestone structures set in Victorian appearance and four wood structures highlighting 19th century agricultural implements and skilled trades.

Annandale-on-Hud

Montgomery Place, a serene reflection of nearly 200 years of continuous family stewardship, is best known as a landscape influenced by the great Andrew Jackson Downing and an architectural landmark designed by Alexander Jackson Davis. But the totality of the estate - house, gardens, arboretum, woodlands, orchards, hamlet, and natural features - makes it a unique American treasure.

Steepletop is the former estate of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay. It encompasses a wonderfully preserved home with her personal artifacts, historic gardens and walking trails on 200 bucolic acres overlooking the Taconic Mountains on the eastern border of NY near the Berkshires.

The Phelps Mansion Museum was built in 1870 for Sherman D. Phelps, a local Binghamton businessman, by architect, Isaac G. Perry. The "Gem" is an exceptional example of the outstanding ability of Perry to coordinate into the design, beautiful rare woods, metal, and glass in the interior of the house. A beautiful Baccarat crystal chandelier from 1890 adorns the ballroom while rare chandeliers in other rooms are reminiscent of the Victorian period. Viewing the outside of the Museum, the mansard roof and cresting as well as the iron fence highlight the exterior of the museum Declared a national historic landmark in 1973, it was placed on the National Register of Historic American Buildings.

The house is an 1892 Queen Anne designed by Elfred Bartoo and was the first home of Harlow E. Bundy, founder of Bundy Mfg. and progenitor of IBM. Currently it showcases middle-class lifestyles in the late Victorian period and features exhibits including the timeclock collection and a modern art gallery. It frequently hosts educational and social events and programs.

Bronx

Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum, with its splendid Greek Revival interiors, is tucked away in a lovely, quiet corner of Pelham Bay Park – an area that was once home to more than 20 elegant country estates. As the only grand country house still in existence on Pelham Bay, it provides an important link to the social and architectural history of New York.

Edgar Allan Poe spent the last years of his life, from 1846 to 1849, in The Bronx at Poe Cottage, now located at Kingsbridge Road and the Grand Concourse. A small wooden farmhouse built about 1812, the cottage once commanded unobstructed vistas over the rolling Bronx hills to the shores of Long Island. It was a bucolic setting in which the great writer penned many of his most enduring poetical works, including “Annabel Lee,” “The Bells” and “Eureka.”

Blacksmith Isaac Valentine built this four-level fieldstone farm house in 1758 near the Boston Post Road. His property included a blacksmith shop, outhouses, farmland, and a number of slaves. His homestead was later the site of six skirmishes between American troops and British forces, who occupied the house for most of the Revolutionary War. After the Revolution, the Valentines fell on hard times and the Dutch Reformed Church seized the property. In 1791, the house passed into the hands of the Varian family.

Brooklyn

Built by a Dutch family in the 18th century farming village of Flatbush, Lefferts Historic House interprets the history of Brooklyn’s environment from pre-Colonial times until the present, using its working garden, historic artifacts, and documents, as well as period rooms and exhibits.

Once a stone's throw from salt marshes and clam beds, the Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House Museum is probably the oldest home in New York City. The house, built around 1652, became the City's first landmark in 1965.

Travel back in time as one of our knowledgeable docents leads you through the Granger Homestead and Carriage Museum. Listen to stories of the four generations of Grangers, who lived in this magnificent home from 1816-1930.

Cooperstown

Hyde Hall is one of the finest representations of romantic classicism in America. The three parts of the house-the family rooms, the guest or entertaining areas and the staff quarters-were built in three different styles around a central courtyard.

Floral Park

Year Built: 1772Admission Price: Contact MuseumHours: See their website

This 47-acre tract of farmland exemplifies the 300-year history of agriculture and farming as a way of life and livelihood in Queens County. The restored Adriance Farmhouse, the centerpiece of the farm complex, was first built as a three-room Dutch farmhouse in 1772. The farmhouse and surrounding 7-acre historic area mirror the evolution of this unique tract of land from a colonial homestead to a truck farm that served the needs of a growing city in the early twentieth century. The historic outbuildings, orchard, planting fields, vineyard, herb garden, and farmyard animals bring history to life for our urban visitors.

Flushing

Built between 1774 and 1785, the Kingsland Homestead is one of the earliest surviving examples of residential style construction common throughout Long Island, specifically Queens, in the late 18th and 19th centuries. A Long Island half-house, it is characterized by a wide side hall and double parlors off to one side. Other features include a central chimney between the side parlors, a dependent kitchen wing, and three front windows on the second floor.

Garrison

Year Built: 1804Admission Price: Adults $17, Seniors $14, Children $8Hours: See their website

Built between 1804 and 1808 on a 250-acre river front site in Montrose, New York, Boscobel is considered to be one of the finest examples of Federal-style architecture in New York. Boscobel’s complex history represents several different periods and restoration philosophies. The house is restored to the Federal style of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and is highly regarded for its quality and authenticity.

Geneva

Year Built: 1829Admission Price: Donations acceptedHours: See their website

Charles Butler, a Geneva attorney, built the Prouty-Chew House as a Federal style home in 1829. Phineas Prouty, a local merchant, purchased the home in 1842. The property remained in the Prouty family for 60 years. Between 1858 and 1883, extensive alterations were made to the house, giving it the eclectic look seen today. Beverly Chew, the great-grandson of Phineas Prouty, purchased the home in 1921.

Year Built: 1839Admission Price: Adults $7, Seniors $6, Students $4Hours: See their website

Considered one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in the United States, Rose Hill Mansion was restored in the 1960s through the generosity of Waldo Hutchins Jr. in honor of his mother, Agnes Swan Hutchins, who grew up in the house. The house is furnished with many pieces that belonged to the Swan family, including a Severin Roesen painting and an 1845 rosewood parlor set attributed to Alexander Roux.

Germantown

Clermont was built between 1740 and 1750, by Robert Livingston, Jr., on land acquired in 1686 by his father, just a dozen years after New Netherland finally became British New York. A royal patent secured by Robert Livingston, Sr. granted him the privileges of a manor lord and 160,000 acres, stretching all the way from the Hudson River’s east bank to the border of present day Massachusetts.

Greenport

Year Built: 1872Admission Price: See their websiteHours: See their website

Olana State Historic Site was the home of Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), one of the major figures in the Hudson River School of landscape painting. The centerpiece of Olana is an eclectic villa composed of many styles, difficult to categorize, which overlooks parkland and a working farm designed by the artist. As well, the residence has a wide view of the Hudson River valley, the Catskill Mountains and the Taconic Range. The Olana Viewshed comprises panoramic views that begin in the Hudson River Valley and extend toward Massachusetts, Vermont, and Connecticut. Church built the home for his wife Isabel (1836–1899) and they named their estate after a fortress-treasure house in ancient Greater Persia (modern-day Armenia), which also overlooked a river valley. Olana is one of the few intact artists' home, studio and estate complexes in the United States; it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965. It is owned and operated by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and is also supported by The Olana Partnership. The main building is an architectural masterpiece designed by the architect Calvert Vaux working closely with Church. The stone, brick, and poly chrome-stenciled villa is a mixture of Victorian, Persian and Moorish styles. The interior remains much as it was during Church's lifetime, exotically furnished and decorated with objects from his global travels, and with some 40 paintings by Church and his friends, including his mentor Thomas Cole. The house is intricately stenciled inside and out; Church designed the stencils based on his travels in the Middle East. The house contains Church's last studios, built as an addition from 1888 to 1890. The last forty years of his life, Frederic Church created a 250 acre designed landscape with breath taking views in every direction.

Hyde Park

The Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site contains "Springwood", the lifelong home of America's only 4-term President. Also on the site is the Presidential Library and Museum, operated by the National Archives. Visitors may enjoy a guided tour of FDR's home, take a self-guided tour of the Museum and stroll the grounds, gardens, and trails of this 300-acre site.

Historically known as Hyde Park, Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site is one of the region's oldest Hudson River estates. For nearly two centuries, this place has been home to socially prominent New Yorkers. A superb example of its type, Hyde Park represents the domestic ideal of the elite class in the late nineteenth-century America. It provides a glimpse of estate life, the social stratification of the period, and the world of the American millionaire during the era historians refer to as the Gilded Age.

Jamaica

King Manor, the oldest house in Jamaica, Queens, is the focal point of the historic 11-acre King Park. The house takes its name from the 18th and 19th century statesman Rufus King, who signed the constitution, spoke out against the spread of slavery, and served as a senator from New York for 19 years.

New York

The Dyckman family sold the prosperous farm in 1868 and moved to a more fashionable mansion on Broadway. In 1915, two sisters, Mary Alice D. Dean and Fannie Fredericka D. Welsh, descendants of William Dyckman, bought back the family house and began extensive reconstruction--one of the earliest historic restorations undertaken in New York. They presented it to the City in 1916 with 18th- and 19th-century furniture and objects that were representative of their family's belongings.

Built in 1719 as an elegant residence for the merchant Stephan Delancey and his family, in 1762 the home was purchased by tavern-keeper Samuel Fraunces, who turned it into one of the most popular taverns of the day. Though it is best known as the site where Washington gave his farewell address to the officers of the Continental Army, in 1783, the tavern also played a significant role in pre-Revolutionary activities.

Gracie Mansion stands in Carl Schurz Park above Hell Gate, a roaring stretch of water where the Harlem and East Rivers meet. The 18th-century house, built by a man who made and lost his fortune at sea, is now the official residence of the Mayor of the City of New York./

The Merchant's House Museum is New York City's only family home preserved intact -- inside and out -- from the 19th century. Built in 1832 just steps from Washington Square, this elegant red-brick and white-marble row house on East Fourth Street was home to prosperous merchant Seabury Tredwell and his family for 100 years.

Manhattan's oldest surviving house, the Morris-Jumel Mansion atop Harlem Heights, is a monument to colonial grandeur. Built about 1765 as a summer retreat for British colonel Roger Morris and his wife, Mary Philipse, its distinctive style was very advanced for its time. Morris, the son of a successful English architect, may have influenced the Palladian design, which includes a two-story portico and triangular pediment, classical columns, and a large octagonal room at the rear--the first of its kind in the country.

Originally constructed as a carriage house in 1799 and later converted to a "day hotel," the museum transports visitors back to a country resort for New Yorkers escaping the crowded city below 14th Street. One of only seven 18th-century buildings in Manhattan open to the public and the only surviving day hotel.

Year Built: 1919Admission Price: See their websiteHours: See their website

Roosevelt's original birthplace was demolished in 1916. After Roosevelt's death in 1919, the site was purchased by the Women's Roosevelt Memorial Association, rebuilt and decorated with many of its original furnishings by Roosevelt's sisters and wife.

The Bement-Billings Farmstead features the Federal style house built in 1794 by Revolutionary War veteran Asa Bement, on land that was part of the Boston Purchase. This living history museum is staffed on summer weekends by costumed volunteers who cook on the open hearth and give tours. Asa’s son added a formal Greek Revival parlor, additional bedrooms, and a cellar in 1843; his grandson added a summer kitchen (now our gift shop) in 1880. The Farmstead includes a Welcome Center, English threshing barn, loom barn, a working blacksmith shop, woodworking shop, sap house, granary, and nature trails. It is the site of an annual Apple Festival the first weekend of October.

Newburgh

This majestic house, architecturally unique in the Hudson Valley, is remarkably intact, having been little changed over the years. There is a wealth of original interior and exterior architectural detail. The House is interpreted to reflect, not only the life of a wealthy 19th century family, but the rich history and traditions of Newburgh and the larger Hudson Valley.

Year Built: 1884Admission Price: See their websiteHours: See their website

Sagamore Hill was the home of Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, from 1885 until his death in 1919. From 1902 to 1908 his "Summer White House" was the focus of international attention. Otherwise, it was the home of a most remarkable fellow.

Penn Yan

In 1852, Dr. Andrew Oliver built a large brick Italianate style house on Main Street in Penn Yan. This 18 room home was a wedding gift for his son, William, who also pursued a medical career. William had three children, Jennie, William (another doctor), and Carrie who lived their entire lives in the Oliver House. As none of these siblings had children, the family line ended with the death of Carrie in 1942. It was Carrie’s will that deeded the house to the village of Penn Yan.

Plattsburgh

The Kent-Delord House Museum, on the shore of Lake Champlain and near the heart of historic downtown Plattsburgh, New York, is this region’s only Historic House museum, is the area’s oldest house in its original form, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is dedicated to bringing 200+ years of American history to life. The Museum is a place for children, adults, and groups to gather to explore heritage gardens, historic buildings, hands-on activities, hear stories told by re-enactors, and see the changing exhibits that offer hours of fun and discovery.

Overlooking the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie, NY, the 150 acre estate of Samuel F.B. Morse includes an Italianate villa designed by Alexander Jackson Davis containing extensive collections of American and European decorative and fine arts. Three miles of carriage roads wind through landscaped grounds, romantic gardens and shady groves.

Rensselaer

Year Built: 1704Admission Price: $5 Adults, $4 Seniors/Students, Children, 12 and uHours: Tours: 11AM-4PM,Wednesday-Sunday from mid-May through the end of October.

Crailo State Historic Site is a museum of Colonial New Netherland history in the upper Hudson Valley. Originally a part of the vast landholding called the Manor or Patroonship of Rensselaerswyck.
railo was built in the early 18th century by Hendrick Van Rensselaer, grandson of the First Patroon. Hendrick died in 1740 and his eldest son, Johannes, inherited Crailo. He remodeled the house and added an east wing in the Georgian style, reflecting the increasing influence of the English on the Albany-area Dutch. In the late 18th century, Crailo was remodeled in the Federal style.

The original Italianate villa designed by John Warren Ritch was remodeled and enlarged in 1888 by Thomas's son Robert Bowne Suckley and his wife, Elizabeth Philips Montgomery. Poughkeepsie architect Arnout Cannon was hired to transform the two story villa into an elaborate Queen Anne style country house. The structure now soared upward with the addition of a third floor, multi-gabled attic and a dramatic five story circular tower with a commanding view of the surrounding landscape. The fanciful, asymmetrical skyline of the house was enhanced by the addition of an imposing porte-cochere and an expansive verandah.

George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film combines the world's leading collections of photography and film with the stately pleasures of the landmark Colonial Revival mansion and gardens that George Eastman called home from 1905 to 1932.

Based on the family life of pioneers Orringh and Elizabeth Stone, the Stone-Tolan House Museum represents the private and the public activities of a household and rural tavern on the frontier in Brighton, NY between 1790 and 1820.

Rotterdam Junction

In a storybook setting of productive fields and a matchless Mohawk River landscape sits the Jan Mabee Farm - the oldest in the Mohawk Valley. The stone house was owned by the same family for nearly 300 years. Coupled with the Inn and Slave Quarters buildings as well as a New World Dutch Barn and other outbuildings, the site provides a memorable visual encounter with a former frontier outpost.

Sleepy Hollow

Year Built: Admission Price: Adults $12, Seniors $10, Children $6Hours: See their website

Philipsburg Manor is a historic site of great historical importance. Once the headquarters of an enormous Hudson Valley manor, the site vividly interprets aspects of the history of colonial New York and the system of racially-based slavery which helped keep the estate running in the 18th century. The visitor center at Philipsburg, located on Rt. 9 in the village of Sleepy Hollow, offers a wide range of services and changing exhibitions, and also serves as the visitor center for Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate.

The Rogers Mansion was built by Captain Albert Rogers in 1843, at the peak of the whaling industry. The property had been in his family since 1648. In 1898 Samuel L. Parrish, a wealthy NYC attorney and land developer purchased the home and added many colonial-revival additions. The Museum acquired the one-acre property in 1952 and began adding historic 19th century trade shops and a barn, saving them from destruction. Today the Rogers Mansion Museum Complex has 12 historic buildings listed on the National Registrar of Historic Places. The Rogers Mansion is open Feb-Dec. The Museum also manages three other historic properties. The Pelletreau Silver Shop at 80 Main Street was built in 1686 and is the oldest continuously opened trade shop in the Americas. It is open year-round. The Thomas Halsey Homestead at 179 South Main Street has a 1666 first period house open to visitors during the summer. Conscience Point Historic Marker and Nature Walk is located on North Sea Road in North Sea, NY. The five acre wildlife preserve is open sunrise to sunset and has a shellfish hatchery with education programs during the summer.

Staatsburg

Staatsburgh State Historic Site is the elegant country home of Ogden Mills and his wife Ruth Livingston Mills. Sitting atop a grassy hill overlooking the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains, their house is a fine example of a great estate built by America's financial and industrial leaders during the Gilded Age (1876 - 1917).

Staten Island

The Alice Austen House Museum on Staten Island recalls the world of an exceptional woman, photographer Alice Austen. Austen's quaint, Victorian cottage-style home, with a magnificent view of New York Harbor, displays prints from the large glass negative collection of her work that depict turn-of-the-century American life.

This historic house is preserved as a memorial to the lives of Antonio Meucci and Giuseppe Garibaldi. Antonio Meucci, a native of Florence, Italy, lived here until his death in 1889. In 1849, while experimenting with the new phenomenon of electricity, he discovered that sound could be transmitted by electric wires. Alexander Graham Bell was then two years old.

Built by English immigrant Captain Christopher Billopp, in or around the year 1680, this handsome stately manor was a wheat farm throughout the first century of its existence. An invaluable relic in America's history, the Conference House was the site of a 1776 peace conference which attempted to end the Revolutionary War. Edward Rutledge, John Adams, Lord Howe and Benjamin Franklin were among those in attendance. Surrounded by lush acreage of forests, marshland and meadows, the Conference House overlooks the Arthur Kill River, Lower Raritan Bay and nearby New Jersey.

The impressive Greek Revival structure stands on the south shore of Staten Island; among its chief glories is a panoramic view of Prince’s Bay. The land upon which the Mansion sits was purchased by James Seguine between 1780-1786. Seguine Avenue and Seguine Point in Prince’s Bay were named after this prosperous family, whose ancestors first settled on Staten Island about 1706.

Tarrytown

Year Built: 1913Admission Price: See their websiteHours: See their website

This hilltop paradise was home to four generations of the Rockefeller family, beginning with the philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. His business acumen made him, in his day, the richest man in America. Now a historic site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, this extraordinary landmark has been continuously and meticulously maintained for more than 100 years.
All Kykuit tours originate from the Visitor Center at Philipsburg Manor, located on Route 9 in the village of Sleepy Hollow.

Year Built: 1838Admission Price: See their websiteHours: See their website

Overlooking the Hudson River in Tarrytown NY is Lyndhurst, one of America's finest Gothic Revival mansions. The architectural brilliance of the residence, designed in 1838 by Alexander Jackson Davis, is complemented by a park-like landscape and a comprehensive collection of original decorative arts.

Sunnyside, a National Historic Landmark, is the meticulously restored and charmingly picturesque home of renowned author Washington Irving. America's first successful, internationally known author, Washington Irving's writings include numerous works of fiction, history and biography. He is best remembered for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, stories that are enduring hallmarks in American literature, culture, and folklore. In 1835, Irving purchased a simple 18th-century cottage and enlarged and remodeled it to its present appearance. The wisteria-covered, stepped-gable entrance and the Spanish-style tower are instantly recognizable images of America's literary and architectural history.

Troy

Amid the 19th century rowhouses in the Second Street Historic District in downtown Troy sits a white marble house, completed in 1827, just as Troy was beginning its shift from a commercial to an industrial economy base. The Hart-Cluett House, as it is known today, was constructed for a businessman-banker’s family, the Harts, and sold six decades later to the Cluett family, a family who helped give Troy the nickname, “The Collar City.”